Femi Akomolafe is a computer consultant, writer and a social commentator/critic. Femi and his crew currently produce videos, films and documentaries. Femi lives in Kasoa, Ghana.

Monday, July 7, 2008

ET TU Republic of South Africa?

“It takes a million people to build up a reputationBut it takes one stupid fool to destroy everything you have done.”

Lucky Dube

The past few weeks were terrible times for Africans everywhere. And every true Pan-Africanist who watched the events in the Republic of South Africa (RSA) must have seriously belly-ached. That the RSA, a 'Rainbow nation,' the land of the acclaimed Patron Saint of reconciliation, Nelson Mandela, should descend into orgy of mayhem and violence with black Africans as victims is the stuff of the worst nightmares.

The sad truth is that Africa and by extension Africans gave so much to the RSA that it borders on the worst gratuitous ingratitude to see black South Africans armed with cudgels, stone and guns descending on their brothers and sisters from other parts of the motherland with lynching and looting intentions.

Fifty Africans, whose only crime was the colour of their skin, were violently murdered with several thousand more dislocated seeking shelters at Police Stations, churches, mosques and what have you. Many more have returned to their home countries tearfully narrating their ordeals at the hands of people who were previously looked upon as friends and neighbours. A Mozambican was burned alive!

Cry the beloved country! This is the same South Africa that less than two decades ago Africans made tremendous efforts to free from the clutches of the mindless and merciless Albinos from Europe hell-bent on maintaining the last White bastion on African soil?

It appears that the criminals in South Africa failed to heed the sage Mandela's warning that amnesty could not and should not be equated with amnesia. How otherwise could they have so soon and so easily forget that wretchedly poor African countries gave generously to ‘their‘ country’s liberation!

Do those poor and wretched souls unaware of the tremendous battering they are giving to their country's image? This is a country set to hold what its leaders have termed the 'African World Cup,' in two years. And it is towards the republic that many Africans are looking upon to enable Africa takes its rightful place among the comity of nations!

It was Nigerian author, Chinua Achebe, who opined that the problem of Africa is that of leadership. It's difficult to argue with that. Why did most post-colonial African leaders believe that their people would be satisfied with token independence? Why did they assume that their people would be appeased with a sham sovereignty totally bereft of any economic empowerment? Cote d'Ivoire, Kenya, Senegal, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Namibia, Zimbabwe (until recently and South Africa were among African countries that attained nominal independence whilst the economy maintain its rigid colonial structures. The same is true of our beloved Ghana!

Afro-Pessimists and professional African bashers are having a field day. Their call: "Look at what they are doing to themselves! We told you so: black people are simply incapable of self-governing with the guiding hands of we Albinos."

Of course, lost in all the self-satisfied smirks of the racist Albinos is the simple fact they bear some responsibility for screwing up the minds of the blacks of that unfortunate land and elsewhere on the continent. What Afro-Pessimists also signally failed to configure into their inebriated analyses is that the Zulus (they formed the majority of the looters) are also targeting non-Zulu South Africans like the Vendas and Shangaans. Do we define that also as Xenophobic?

There is no hiding from the fact that the riots has given powerful ammunition to those dead set against African unity. The question is asked what hope is there for an African unity when in these times and days Africans are still killing other Africans living amongst them?

My own position is that contrary to what these analysts are saying, the South African incident offers cogent arguments for African leaders to expedite action on forming the African Union Government. I offer the following reasons which have been posited by better minds than mine.

1. A Union government will put an end to the pettiness that is the driving force behind most of African politics. When Africans learn to think continentally, they will stop being exploited by politicians who are forever pandering to primordial tribal sentiments.

2. A Union government will be powerful enough to demand and ensure that Africa gets better prices for her resources. I have argued elsewhere that setting the prices for African resources is a powerful tool at the hands of the Albinos. A united Africa, setting the prices for her products will have more financial resources to cater to her people than the present situation where we remain the world’s beggar despite our huge mineral resources. Ghana and her neighbor Cote D’Ivoire accounts for over half of the world’s cocoa production. The question is what’s stopping the leaders of these two countries from forming and OPEC-like cartel to jerk up the prices?

3. A Union government will ensure a more rapid industrialization pace for the continent. The Late Cheikh Anta Diop (of Senegal) discusses this at length in his book entitled, ‘Black Africa: An Economic Basis for a Federated State.’ Among Diop’s idea was the building of a huge dam on the mighty Congo River that would supply all of Africa’s energy needs. The idea has recently been taken up. We pray that it shall see a successful fruition. Industrialization will create better employment opportunities and ensure that, for once, Africans start to enjoy the fruits of their god-given natural resources

4. A Union Government will take it as a priority the total re-education of Africans with strong emphasis on the cultural, linguistic and history links that binds all Africans. Couple with this will be the decolonization of the African mind that will create the New African Personality that will see himself as a total being instead of as an appendage of the historic oppressors of his race.

5. Many African nations have suffered rebel incursions launched from neighbouring states. A good example is Chad and Sudan which are perennially at each other’s throat. A continental government with a standing army will, for once, ensure that African lives are stopped being wasted like no man’s business. You doubt this, go and read more about how Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe (mandated by SADC) put a stop to the imperialists designs on DRC and how Ghana and Nigeria (mandated by ECOWAS) stopped the carnage in both Liberia and Sierra Leone. The million of African lives wastes in senseless wars would not have happened had African leaders listened to Kwame Nkrumah’s call for an African High Command.

6. A union Government will strive to put a stop to the despicable exploitation of our motherland by Multinationals. Take the case of telecommunication: how good and pleasant it would be if I can use my Ghana-registered mobile phone in Asmara or Casablanca. No, I am not asking for the moon; it’s done in Europe.

From slavery to colonialism to new-colonialism to the new term ‘globalisation,’ the Albinos are forever contriving to keep ahead. They keep stealing Africa’s resources while serving us useless verbiages like their so-called democracy and on-paper freedom (which never includes freedom from hunger and want). To them we should be satisfied with our sham independence while they collared our elite into a cozy arrangement that guarantee them the world’s best goodies whilst we remain solidly mired in our poverty.

The leaders of South Africa have history to guide them; but they refused to learn. I am terribly ashamed by the lack of leadership shown by President Thabo Mbeki during the violence in RSA. He is a man I have greatly admired, but sadly he was found wanting when his nation cried for positive leadership.

Without a doubt there have been tremendous changes in the fortunes of Africans in South Africa. But the intelligent leaders of the rainbow nation should have configured the Theory of Rising Expectations into their strategic planning. It is said that power concedes nothing without strong demand. The stiff-necked Rhodesians played judicial rigmaroles until Uncle Bob got thoroughly fed up with them. After over forty years of independence, the Albinos are still maintaining their rigid control of the Kenyan economy. The Albinos still own the largest tracts of land in Namibia. They are still in control of the South African economy with token handouts to a few blacks here and dare. And they still own over eighty percent of the African land!

The fiction has been maintained that Africa needs the Albino and his Capital. Another myth is that the Albinos in Africa are there for purely altruistic reasons. The truth is that Europeans in Africa enjoy a standard of living that they can never match in their home countries. And Europe certainly does not offer them the vast strategic minerals they are looting from Africa.

Prophets like Nkrumah cried for African leaders to shed their pettiness and embrace a continental government which would have allow Africa to become a global force to be reckoned with. The Albinos conspired and killed the great man. Because Africa remains fragmented, the Albinos can continue to pick us one by one and emasculate us.

Those smirking Albinos should note that today, it is black visiting mayhem on blacks, tomorrow the blacks might decide to once and for all confront their common foe: the Albino sitting on African resources and still unwilling to share. Let see what chorus they would be singing when the oppressed blacks decided that enough is enough.

*To those who would like to know more about why oppressed people everywhere turns against themselves first, I recommend the anti-colonial classic by Albert Memmi, ‘The Colonized and the colonizers.’

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I welcome you to my blog.

As you shall soon find out, I hold very strong opinions and I am never afraid to express them in the strongest terms possible.

As you shall also soon realise, I'm a passionate Pan-Africanist. It goes without saying that I am unconditionally opposed to racism in all its manifestations. I abhor the doctrine that skin colour confers some form of superiority.

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It means that the sky is big enough for all the birds to fly without touching wings.